[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

The secret is in the still manufacturer's site (link in post # 11):

" but if it is fuel you are after, you want to burn scrap wood, or anything you can get cheap or free as a fuel source, because you have to minimise your costs and also be adaptable."

In a sense, alcohol production is a roundabout method for converting hog fuel into transportation fuel. I understand that commercial operations burn coal to do the evaporation -- in effect a way of using coal for automobile fuel.

[TKDietz]

"I understand that commercial operations burn coal to do the evaporation -- in effect a way of using coal for automobile fuel."

In Brazil they burn their sugar cane stalks for the distillation process and use ethanol to produce the electricity to run their ethanol plants. They end up selling excess electricity to their power companies and still make a nice profit on the ethanol.